


Discordance

by amaresu



Category: The Losers - All Media Types
Genre: Community: fic_promptly, Gen, Piano
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-05
Updated: 2012-12-05
Packaged: 2017-11-20 08:11:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/583165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amaresu/pseuds/amaresu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt was: The Losers ~ Jensen ~ nobody knew he could play an instrument.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Discordance

Somewhere between LA and New Hampshire it finally hit him that no matter what happens he's never going to be in the Army again. They can clear their names, but they can't really ever get their lives back. He thinks it's the pain of once again losing his purpose in life that makes him start thinking of the piano again. It takes less than a month for the walled off portion of his mind that he carefully sealed his old dreams and desires behind to crumble. 

The old lure of the keys pulls him into the store and over to one of the uprights in the corner, the bench against the wall. He's almost painfully glad that none of the baby grands back up against the wall because he's not sure he could resist and he's not sure he could bare to play one. Cougar is, unsurprisingly, the one that finds him. He's been playing scales for the past half hour, carefully working his fingers into patterns that used to be second nature, but now he has to concentrate on. He doesn't say anything or stop when Cougar sits down next to him, just nods and switches up an octave as he slides over to make room.

“I didn't know you played,” Cougar doesn't quite keep the curiosity and slight confusion out of his voice at the statement. Which is fair enough because Jake has never once mentioned the piano to any of the Losers.

He shifts into something else, a half remembered tune he heard in Myanmar once, “I got into Juilliard.”

His fingers fumble on the keys for a second betraying just how unsettled he is by a conversation he's not even sure he knows why he's starting. Cougar doesn't seem to notice the slip though and when Jake sneaks a look at his face it's carefully blank but for a slight upturn of his lips that betrays his pleasure, “You're good.”

Jake can't stop the snort that comes out at the statement and his fingers still on the keys, “No, I was good. Maybe even great.”

Cougar is as still next to him as he would normally be when lining up a shot, “What happened?”

Jake runs his fingers along the keys without pressing down on them before starting to play Chopin's Scherzo, “A month after I was accepted my dad lost his job. Suddenly there wasn't any money for college and my financial aid package just wasn't good enough.”

He stops playing again after messing up too many notes. Cougar doesn't notice, but Jake had auditioned with this piece. Cougar tentatively rests his hand over Jake's on the keyboard, “So you joined the Army?”

“Yep,” he leans back against the wall, tangling his fingers with Cougars to keep them off the keys. “I figured between the GI Bill, what I could save of my pay, and a new FAFSA with my tax information I'd be able to afford it in a few years. It didn't seem like a bad trade off and I even ended up liking the Army.”

“You gave up the piano for the Army?” He doesn't need to look at Cougar to know just how much he doesn't buy that story. 

Jake laughs, bitterly and quietly, “I got sent to the ass end of Afghanistan as tech support and our base got hit. I was asleep in the barracks at the time. One second I'm asleep and the next I'm buried under a building with five other people. It was two days before they managed to dig us out and get us airlifted to a hospital.”

Cougar squeezes his fingers, “You were badly injured?”

“No,” he untangles his fingers and lifts up his hands in front of them, “I really wasn't. A broken leg, cracked collar bone, and six broken fingers. Most people would've called me lucky. By the time I got to a doctor they had to rebreak two of my fingers to make sure they healed correctly.”

Jake thinks Cougar gets it now so he doesn't tell him the rest. The way his fingers just wouldn't quite work right after that. The notes never sounded as good or as clear after the bandages came off. His teacher had practically been in tears the first time they sat down at a piano afterwards. He'd gotten better with practice, but by the time his medical leave was up they both knew his dreams of playing professionally were in as many shatters as the barracks he'd been sleeping in.

“How long?” Cougar asks quietly, even for him. 

Jake shrugs and stands up while thinking of the piano that fell out of tune and only remained dust free because of his mother before they finally gave it to his sister for Beth and knows what Cougar is asking. He's had enough with opening his old emotional scars for one day though, “Hotdogs, I'm buying.”

Cougar nods, his eyes hidden by the brim of his hat now that Jake is standing. He gets up and runs his fingers along the keys like a little kid before grabbing Jake's hand and leading the way out of the store.


End file.
